multiplanetary
Explanation
The Joke
The comic opens with a triumphant announcement on what appears to be Mars: "Finally, Mars! Mankind are now multiplanetary! We have saved ourselves for all time!" A crowd cheers this achievement. The second panel jumps ahead to "Two weeks later," where one colonist says "Yeah, I kinda hate Earth. Mars rules!" and another responds with "War?" followed by an enthusiastic "War!" The final panel, captioned "And so," shows a massive asteroid or projectile obliterating the Mars colony.
The comic takes the popular argument that becoming a multiplanetary species is humanity's insurance policy against extinction and shows how it would fail. The reasoning behind colonizing Mars is that having a backup planet protects against catastrophe, but the comic points out that the real existential threat to humanity isn't asteroids or natural disasters -- it's humanity itself. Given our track record, we'd simply create a new rivalry and destroy each other.
The Humor
The humor lies in the speed and inevitability of the self-destruction. It takes only two weeks for interplanetary tribalism to emerge. The comic satirizes both the techno-optimism of space colonization advocates (particularly figures like Elon Musk who promote Mars colonization as existential risk mitigation) and humanity's fundamental inability to get along. Being "multiplanetary" doesn't save you from extinction when the primary extinction risk is your own species' penchant for warfare. The punchline is visual -- the colony being annihilated -- delivering the bleakly funny conclusion that we'd simply export our worst tendencies to new worlds.